EMERALD ENSEMBLE SEASON IV

 


 

Flower Songs


Friday, October 4, 2019 | 8:00 PM | Seattle Opera Center

By invitation only

Friday, October 11, 2019 | 7:00 PM | Seattle First Baptist Church
Seattle Sings Choral Festival, honoring Dr. Morten Lauridsen

Admission: Free, donation at the door welcome

 

The Emerald Ensemble is honored to present a live broadcast performance to commemorate the inauguration of Classical KING-FM's new studio. A week later we will participate in the Greater Seattle Choral Consortium's "welcome home" concert for the foremost American choral composer, Morten Lauridsen, who has retired from his Californian teaching post to settle our Northwest islands. Lauridsen's settings of French poetry by Rilke, "Les chansons des roses", form the colorful leaves and flowers of these performances. The stem is Britten's "Five Flower Songs", and the branches are two other American works by the Revolutionary-era William Billings and local composer Jeremy Kings.

 

-- Benjamin Britten: Five Flower Songs

-- William Billings: I am the Rose of Sharon

-- Jeremy Kings: A Red, Red Rose

-- Morten Lauridsen: Les chansons des roses

 


 

Mother Sweden

Sunday, February 23, 2020 | 3:00 PM | National Nordic Museum
Tickets are purchased through the National Nordic Museum online or at the door.

Admission: $25 for members and $30 for general admission, $10 student

 

Some of the twentieth century's most sumptuous composers hailed from Sweden. Early on, there was the Romantic patriotism of Wilhelm Stenhammar, the contrapuntal craftsmanship of Otto Olsson, the simple folksongs of Hugo Alfvén, and the impressionism of Hildor Lundvik. More recent years have brought the modernist tone-clusters of the late Sven-David Sandström and the minimalist tranquility of his brother Jan. These composers and more demonstrate why Sweden has long been a cornerstone of the choral tradition.